This invention relates generally to apparatus for automatically sorting and feeding articles in a desired orientation, and more particularly to automatic material handling apparatus for feeding articles such as lightweight, plastic bottles in a predetermined oriented upright position to a desired processing location.
In the past, the arranging of bottles into a predetermined position or orientation before feeding them to a desired location such as bottle filling station has involved a great deal of manual handling and manipulation of the bottles. Consequently, it has not been possible to uniformly orient all the bottles to the same position nor to feed them at a substantially uniform predetermined rate. Additionally, several persons have been necessarily employed to arrange the bottles in order to provide a sufficiently high rate of feed required by the automatic bottle filling equipment. These combined factors have produced inefficient and unpredictable production schedules and resulted in higher operating costs.
Prior attempts to solve the problems associated with manual handling systems by providing apparatus capable of automatically sorting and feeding the bottles have not been entirely successful, especially when handling lightweight, readily bounceable plastic bottles. Known automatic feeder equipment, which usually has been quite expensive and complicated in structure generally has been unsuitable for use with such plastic bottles because of their inability to gently handle and positively control the bottles at all times while positioning them in a predetermined orientation. Hence, the bottles are not discharged from the feeder in a uniform, properly arranged position. In addition, known bottle feeders are limited in capacity, provide only relatively low feed rates, and are not very readily adaptable for operation with various sized and shaped bottles.